Mumbai coach Amol Mazumdar has revealed that Ajinkya Rahane is looking forward to Ranji Trophy and he looks in fine touch. Rahane has been under scrutiny for his poor form and he hasn’t been able to deliver the goods for the team. The experienced batter has been averaging less than 20 in the last two years.
Rahane also could not deliver the goods on the recent tour of South Africa apart from one fifty he scored in the second innings of the second Test match. The veteran batter has now joined the Mumbai squad for the upcoming Ranji Trophy and he will need to get some big scores in the domestic circuit to retain his place in the national team.
Rahane will look to regain his lost confidence and the only way he can do that is by scoring big runs for Mumbai in Ranji Trophy.
“Ajinkya is definitely looking forward to it. We have met a few times now, he has been practising with the Mumbai team. He has had about a couple of sessions already. Looked absolutely in fine touch,” Mumbai coach Amol Muzumdar told PTI.
“We don’t have to look too much into the future but what is lying ahead of us is Ranji Trophy. They both are due for a big one. I feel it is just a question of confidence. Sometimes batting is nothing but confidence.
“If you can regain that confidence somehow. It will come only if you score a big hundred,” added Muzumdar.
On the other hand, Cheteshwar Pujara, who also hasn’t delivered the goods in the last three years, trained at the SCA Stadium in Rajkot. Pujara last scored a century for the Indian team back in 2019 when he scored 193 runs against Australia at the SCG and he will also look to get back in form.
“Pujara is not like other batters. He always has a specific plan when he walks into the nets. He is very meticulous in the way he trains. Today he wanted to practice against reverse swing which he may encounter in the Sri Lanka series,” Saurashtra coach Niraj Odedra told the news agency.
India’s next Test assignment is against Sri Lanka as they will face the Island nation in two-match series in March.
